Tuesday, 3 March 2015

Learn what would happen if an asteroid with a diameter of 310 miles (500 km) hit the Earth. Destination: The Pacific Ocean. The impact peels the crust off the surface. Debris is blasted across into low Earth orbit, and returns to destroy the surface of the Earth. The firestorm encircles the Earth, vaporizing all life in its way. Within one day, the surface of the Earth is uninhabitable.

It started innocently enough, as a charitable institution. But eventually, Bethlem Royal Hospital in London, UK, became known as Bedlam, one of the worst places in the entire world. Although the hospital became a modern psychiatric facility, historically it was representative of the worst excesses of asylums in the era of lunacy reform.

Hybrid cars, computers, those terrible smartphone games everyone's hooked on: humanity has come a long way since our cave-dwelling, hunting-and-gathering, Quasimodo-looking forefathers. But why? What drove all of these fantastic exhibitions of human achievement?

Some of the biggest accomplishments in the history of mankind came about because of beer, which is ironic since beer is also one of the biggest causes of stupidity. Yes, the modern world was shaped by booze.

The enormous Phra Dhammakaya Temple on the outskirts of Bangkok is renowned throughout Thailand for its mass ceremonies. From monk ordinations to celebrating Buddhist holy days the temple holds vast ceremonies involving sometimes hundreds of thousands of participants.

With centres all over the world and a live to air television network to view such events the Dhammaka Movement is said to be the fastest-growing Buddhist movement in present-day Thailand. It teaches of the reality of a True Self (the Dhammakaya) in all beings, which equates with Nirvana.

Monday, 2 March 2015

Watch what happens when you mix Coca-Cola with milk. Phosphoric acid molecules attach to the milk giving them more density while the remaining liquid that makes up the milk and Coca-Cola now being lighter floats on top. The solid matter is basically milk that has been curdled by the addition of the more acidic soda.

Ice hotels are an experience that should be on every traveler's bucket list. With the coolest amenities and epic winter wonderland activities, these frosty hotels make for the ultimate wintertime vacay.

From Canada to Japan to Norway, here are 12 of the most stunning ice hotels from around the world. Cozy rooms made of ice and snow, incredible art carved in the walls and ice chapels that let couples get hitched frozen-style.

In Guatemala culture, afterlife is highly celebrated, and this cultural aspect is readily visible in their cemeteries. Scattered throughout the countryside of Guatemala are cemeteries that feature tombstones painted as colorfully as possible.

Friends and family members paint them using the favorite color of the departed as a way of honoring and remembering the dead. Some of these colorful cemeteries, especially those in the departments of Solóla, Chichicastenango and Xela, have became tourist attractions.

Olive Oatman (1837-1903) was a woman whose family was killed in 1851 when she was fourteen in today's Arizona by a Native American tribe, possibly the Yavapai, who captured and enslaved her and her sister and later sold them to the Mohave people.

After several years with the Mohave, during which her sister died of hunger, Olive Oatman returned to the white world, five years after being carried off. The story resonated in the media of the time and long afterward, partly owing to the prominent blue tattooing of Oatman's face by the Mohave.

This isn't another story about that dress, or at least, not really. It's about the way that humans see the world, and how until we have a way to describe something, even something so fundamental as a color, we may not even notice that it's there.

Until relatively recently in human history, 'blue' didn't exist, not in the way we think of it. Ancient languages didn't have a word for blue - not Greek, not Chinese, not Japanese, not Hebrew. And without a word for the color, there's evidence that they may not have seen it at all.

Through a little gateway on Fleet Street in London lies the Temple, the inner sanctum of Britain's legal profession. It's a curious name. There is no temple, but amid the chambers of barristers is a little old church that has a history going all the way back to the Knights Templar.

Black rats may not have been to blame for numerous outbreaks of the bubonic plague across Europe. Scientists believe repeat epidemics of the Black Death, which arrived in Europe in the mid-14th Century, instead trace back to gerbils from Asia.

The Black Death, which originated in Asia, arrived in Europe in 1347 and caused one of the deadliest outbreaks in human history. It had been thought that black rats were responsible for the plague. Instead, the team believes that specific weather conditions in Asia may have caused another plague-carrying rodent - the giant gerbil - to thrive.

Tea is only second to water when it comes to beverage popularity - so popular that it's consumed as much as coffee, soft drinks, and alcohol combined. There's always time for better tea, though, so here are ten tips and tricks to take your tea to the next level.